Tommy Chong lights up B.C. race

He once co-starred in such marijuana comedies as “Up in Smoke” and “Nice Dreams,” and now Tommy Chong has assumed the role of supporting actor in a British Columbia political race.

Chong is promoting Dana Larsen as the marijuana activist seeks to become new leader of B.C.’s opposition New Democratic Party, one of the province’s two major political parties.

In a video released Tuesday, he announced: “Hey, l’m Tommy Chong, and I just joined the B.C. NDP. Dana Larsen can change the face of this country, but he needs your help. You need to join the B.C. NDP.”

The party will elect a new leader on April 17. The cutoff for signing up new members, eligible to vote, is less than two weeks off. The province’s governing Liberal Party is also electing a new leader, who will become premier.

Larsen is director of the Vancouver Medicinal Cannabis Dispensary, which supplies cannabis to nearly 3,000 people who furnish a prescription from their doctor.

New Democrats’ provincial president Moe Sihota has questioned whether Larsen can legally run, since he was a founder of the B.C. Marijuana Party.

Larsen tried to run for the House of Commons as a New Democrat in Canada’s 2008 election. He was removed as a candidate after Pot TV videos surfaced on the Internet, showing Larsen smoking marijuana and taking LSD.

Under its common moniker “B.C. Bud,” marijuana is widely seen as British Columbia’s leading agricultural export, although no precise estimate can be made of its value. One Vancouver marijuana “research” facility offered free bong hits during last year’s Winter Olympics.

The province’s highest profile marijuana entrepreneur, Marc Emery, pleaded guilty last year to ignoring American law and selling marijuana seeds over the border. He was sentenced to five years in prison and is incarcerated in Georgia.

Tommy Chong once wrote a book about being incarcerated in California for selling bongs over the Internet.

“More recently he played the stoner character Leo on ‘That ’70s Show, ‘ ” The Tyee, an on-line Vancouver publication, reported Tuesday.